Skype Gives Up Anti-GPL Appeal

l2718 writes "Yesterday we discussed Skype's appeal of a German court's ruling against them regarding a violation of the GPL. Harald Welte (the plaintiff) now reports in his blog that following oral argument, Skype decided to drop the appeal and accept the lower court ruling in Weite's favor. More details and analysis at Groklaw. Congratulations to Mr. Welte and GPL-violations.org!"

Regarding the summary...

Is his name Welte or Weite?

Re:Regarding the summary...

Waite, let's see wate the article says... hmm, it's Welte. How svelte!

Re:Regarding the summary...

He's called Harald Welte [wikipedia.org] .

As Groklaw says...

"To all those who don't like the license: you don't have to use it. Just write your own code. But if you want to use GPL code, the license comes with it. It's a package deal. Thanks."

(which has been oft-said on /.)

Re:As Groklaw says...

Absolutely

Also,

If a publisher wants to publish a book of an author that wants his book only to be published in a green envelope, then that might seem odd to you, but still you will have to do it as long as you want to publish the book and have no other agreement in place.

It is freedom, in a way, that binds you with some responsibility. And how difficult it is for many people to understand.

One does have freedom to choose not to drive on roads. But when you choose to drive on roads, there is binding of following certain traffic rules, for the benefit of all. And one must understand the logic behind those bindings.

Go...Penguin ...Go...

Re:As Groklaw says...

It is freedom, in a way, that binds you with some responsibility. And how difficult it is for many people to understand.

People often want to have authority without responsibility: let me do what I want, without having to pay attention to other people's terms, short- and long-term impact, etc. But if you want freedom from this responsibility, you must also give up the authority that requires it. You can try to fight it, but this always comes back in the end.

Re:

I agree with you right up to the point where you say "You can try to fight it, but this always comes back in the end."

That is something I found out when I bought into a condo complex. Where I live the ruling council has enormous powers and very little l

What is the Software?

What GPL'd software did Skype use and how was it discovered that Skype was using it?

Re:What is the Software?

What GPL'd software did Skype use and how was it discovered that Skype was using it?

The Linux kernel...

Re:What is the Software?

They took the open moko device and rebranded it as their own which was fair and legal. What they didnt do was make the source code available for those modifications which is required under section 3 of the GPL. They then packeged their item with a link to the source code but that didnt meet the terms of the license as only people with an internet connection can access it (its a skype device so wouldnt they have an internet conenction to A. Order one and B. Use it) They then claimed the GPL license violated anti-trust yesterday before giving up today.

As for how it was discovered i'm not sure. Im guessing that as they complied with the rest of the agreement they left the copyright notice in.

Glorious day

Re:What is the Software?

When they supplied a link, it didn't meet the licensing terms because they still didn't notify the receiver of his right to redistribute.

Re:

It's really an Open Moko design?

That would have incited Harald, if true, since he worked on that platform. But it's without the cellular chip, I guess, and bigger, and clunkier.

Bruce

Two thoughts on this

This ist the first time, a foreign firm loses in a German court in a GPL-related case. Furthermore, the judge pointed out that it is not sufficient to offer the related sources only on the internet and mention this in a rather general way in the product manual.

Go Harald :-)

Regards

Stirz

Re:

Let's hope other cases end with a similar outcome. Anyone up for tackling Visual Hub (OS X)?

I believe that the same violation of the GPL is occurring with the software Visual Hub for the Mac. While the core program is a separate GUI frontend and it's sour

And thanks to skype too,

for not being a prick and pushing the thing around like sco did.

Re:And thanks to skype too,

Skype is owned by Ebay; prickdom is pretty much a given.

Re:

Tell that to this Seal: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7379554.stm [bbc.co.uk]

Just like real life if you're smaller and on the bottom, you're screwed. Fortunately that wasn't the case for the article's penguin.

Re:Important lesson:

Shouldn't that be "don't fuck with the GNU [gnu.org]"? I mean, I know people are hesitant to refer to the Free Software Foundation and use the term "open source" more often than "free software", but not referencing the GNU Project when talking about the GNU General Public License is pretty ridiculous. The penguin may have helped spread free software and all, but this isn't his fight.

Re:Important lesson:

So the penguin and the gnu are both relevant.

That's right. It's a tag-team match. And Skype's partner was a brain damaged lawyer who thought anti-trust arguments were worth even mentioning. While Tux pummeled Skype, the Gnu snuck up on the lawyer from behind and bashed him with a folding chair.

Re:So, do we get source code now?

This means that you get to see whatever GPL'd code Skype was using, and if they made changes to that code, they are required to release them as well under the GPL. You don't have access under the GPL to any of their other code that does not meet these conditions.

Re:

Well, it looks like business can no longer ignore and quietly use unlicensed software in supporting roles and they'll have to recognize it for what it is.

Unlicensed software is a threat that will expose all of the work it touches it to outside scrutiny whe

Re:This is a victory?

...but if I write some software and post it on a web site, it doesn't have any license, does that mean no one can use it

IANAL, but I'll take a crack at that.

In the US, whatever you create is copyrighted by default. I believe it is easier to defend if you take the step of registering it, but as far as I know simply putting a copyright notice on it is sufficient. So I couldn't come along and take the code you published and use it in a project I intend to distribute without getting your permission.

"Getting your permission" is what abiding by the GPL amounts to. It says "this code is copyrighted. You may not redistribute it unless you agree to these terms ..."

Unlike Microsoft-style EULAs, the GPL (as far as I know) does not have to be accepted by the user, as it really has nothing to do with the user (despite the fact that a lot of software out there makes you "accept" the GPL before installing it). You don't need to agree to anything to use emacs to write your novel, but if you want to include it in a software distribution, or use the source code within a project you are developing yourself, you need to get the permission of the copyright holder and agree to his terms. That means abiding by the GPL.

Yes, you're absolutely correct.

You know what? I was going to try to tell you how wrong you were, and how you basically don't have any idea what you are talking about (or you do, so you know how to make sure everything you say is wrong).

But you know what? That's stupid. I'm not going to argue. You're right. You're absolutely right, the GPL will corrupt your code, your people, and your family. You will have to open source your bedroom activities, and invite RMS to watch. It's all true.

Because, frankly, I'm sick of companies who are too dumb to figure it out themselves, or too fucking retarded to hire the cheapest lawyer they can find to explain it to them if they can't figure it out for themselves, what exactly the GPL does and doesn't do. Cus if you can't figure it out, and are going to just assume whatever comes into your crack-damage brain (it'll pollute us all! no wait it's free we can do whatever we want!)... Then I don't want you using GPL code.

I mean seriously. If you can't figure out how maybe modifying the Linux kernel into your product means you have some obligations to follow vis-a-vis this free OS kernel you just picked up, and how this doesn't affect all the code you wrote that has nothing to do with the kernel... Then you are an idiot, your company deserves to fail, and I can only hope that your fear of using GPL software puts you at a competitive disadvantage and thus hastens that day.

So yes. GPL is viral. Pass it on.

Re:

Skype ripped off some GPL code.
After they got caught out, it went to court.
After some months toing and froing, Skype lost a lower court settlement.
Skype took it to a higher court.
Later that day, the appeals judge slaps them down, hard.
The next day, Skype drops the case.

Fixed that for you.

Re:This is the story...

Did the slap down go along the lines of, "Well, since you believed the license which permitted you to make these copies to be invalid, each copy you made was intended to be a violation of the copyrights for this code. We could therefore start the settlement process by negotiating how many thousands of euros you'll pay per copy."?

I think it really should go something like that. If you think a license in invalid, you're not allowed to use the code under that license. Therefore, you have no license under which to use the code. So if you use the code anyway, you're purposefully committing copyright violations, just the same as if the license is valid and you don't live up to its terms.

Either way, they violated copyright. It's a damn poor argument to make that you thought you'd just use some code because you didn't think there was a valid license that gave you a right to use it.